1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a biometric authentication apparatus used for user authentication based on finger/palm print information and vein information, as well as to a corresponding biometric authentication method.
2. Related Art
Multimodal biometric authentication techniques have been known and used for user authentication with multiple different types of biological information, such as fingerprint, facial recognition, and voice print. In relation to the multimodal biometric authentication techniques, one known technique uses one image sensor to obtain two different types of biological information (Unexamined Patent No. 2004-234040). Another known technique changes a light source for each type of biological information to be obtained (Unexamined Patent No. 2005-168627).
Acquisition of information with higher accuracy has been demanded in the process of obtaining finger/palm print information representing a biological characteristic of fingerprint or palm print and vein information representing a biological characteristic of vein from a user. There has also been a demand in society for the technique of readily verifying whether obtained biological information is a living biological origin or a non-living non-biological origin.